Pinnikle: The Lost Truth

8: Of those we came to be

Recorded by Finnegan Lionhartt,
Of the events which took place around the 17th sunset of Radia, year of Pinnikle: 1,229.

Among things known but never articulated: life itself is a gift full of moments to be lived in - and moments are not stolen away, but given up. Whimsey comes with the caper's call... do you hear it?

— Words written by time, himself

Thirteen years had passed since the two of us were taken by stars, the week we lost our parents. There is not much to be written about those years, but there is one very important detail that I have not yet told you. Before the stars brought us back to Luca village, Sophie was mysteriously revived by an old man in a pointy hat. Some called him a sage, and others a prophet. We know his name to be Lofi.

Tales about Lofi were always told in the way of wild and unbelievable rumors. They started only after Sophie and I had come back, and none of them were good. It had been said he had counseled many kings and queens, but only in their poor choices; or that he was a very old magician who ate children. Many have heard that he somehow knew the stars (a conclusion that a nitwit could put together, since Trynity mentioned Lofi by name) and it had been believed that Lofi stayed alive for many ages because, "He was actually the dark monster who would eat stars,". Nonsense.

I did not have a stake in any of these assumptions though, perhaps except that I believed he was magical. All I knew was this order of events: Sophie died, I fell asleep, we were taken by stars to the one named Lofi... And... When I woke, Sophie was giggling in a happy fit from stealing the man's hat and playing keep away from him and the stars, with that pointy hat pulled over her entire head! And his house: it was somewhere in Plummet Valley.

Lofi's house was magic! I cannot remember all the details of it, but I will tell you this: Inside, there was a fireplace off to the left and a well in the middle. The inside was circular, and books filled every inch of the wall. I did not know how anyone would have the time to read so many books, or why they would even want to! As for the magic: Lofi's house grew, and rooms appeared in it: wide open rooms with great windows! There were places that had walls like a normal room, but the floors were made of grass, and it's dew would glow and float like happy tears of stars! The ceilings were made of sky: half of it day, and half of it night. It seemed as if we could have asked Lofi to make any kind of room for us! Anyways, the best thing was not even his house. It was him.

At the moment of Sophie's very first breath of new life, Lofi laughed like some old and happy herald. He was the first to help us (that is, the first kind of normal being), and his rejoicing for us showed that he cared deeply. After some celebrating, Tryn & Lumin helped Sophie sit up from bed, and the man in the pointy hat delicately tied a little green ribbon into Sophie's hair. The good old wizard fed us for two weeks before sending us home by way of star-flight. Some say: whatever happened in Plummet Valley changed us and made us odd, but that is not where the change came from. If we were strange at all, it's because we had been given a second chance. Neither of us know how Sophie was brought back to life, but she has never gone a day without her ribbon: It's not magical, nor is necessary anymore, but she wears it as a symbol of gratitude.

Since those events, Sophie and I have had a peculiarity about us: lasting and deep gratitude. Sophie became especially grateful for each new day, and after returning to Luca Village nothing particularly odd, dangerous, or even anything inordinately good happened. Sophie and I continued to grow, and became adults. A little older, a little different - Sophie and I would have told you we were changed by daily choices of gratitude after our loss.

We heeded the last advice of our parents, which Jack had left us in writing. I read it every night before sleeping, and every morning before setting out. Mother and father had told us to be brave, among other things. Bravery was an instruction, and boldness was the result - the foremost marker of our differences amid all others in Luca village. It seemed like: for each day we did not experience tragedy, there was something to celebrate. So if there was any difference in us at all, it was perspective.